Quote Originally Posted by Col
Just to add--Barristers now can be instructed by members of the public over court cases and are advised by these Direct Access barristers on the 'procedures in court action' thereby sidestepping the solicitor who would normally instruct the barrister--previously this was never possible or allowed.
Yes, this can make it cheaper if you know how to 'use' counsel properly, as they tend to be significantly more expensive than solicitors e.g. make sure the instructions are spot on, contain all the information counsel will require, know to ask all the right questions that you want an opinion on and avoid counsel going off onto expensive tangents.

As for the legal aid cuts, the policy of successive governments has been to kill off high street solicitors, presumably because they believe that poor people shouldn't have the same access to justice or decent legal representation as rich people because they can't pay for it. Nothing new with these latest cuts, they are smaller than those carried out by Labour's Lord Irvine and Geoff Hoon.

Hoh hum, nothing to see here :-?